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Introduction
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For more information about upcoming workshops, visit the Workshops homepage or send an email to grijalva@ohiou.edu
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Isla Bartolome By Steve Ploetz After visiting Santiago Island (James Island) in the morning we traveled to Bartolome Island to the east in the early evening. Bartolome offered undeniably beautiful landscape. We got dropped off of the panga, and after our guide Charlie got a sea lion to move off of the path, we began to ascend to the top of the island. The landscape is dry and pretty arid. There are several volcanic cones that collapsed. There was not a plethora of animals but the landscape and scenery made up for it. I did see a few lava lizards, of course seeing the red coloration showing a female and the lack of red and larger size showing the lizard to be a male.
You could see lava tunnels where lava flowed at one time, and in some spots see where the lava flow stopped. Lava cactus can be viewed sprinkled throughout the island. We saw a Galapagos hawk flying high above adding to the majestic scenery. The Galapagos hawk is the only endemic predator on the islands. As well as accompanied by a nice gentle breeze adding to the perfect sunset and ending to just one of the amazing days in the Galapagos.
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The
island has over 350 steps in the journey to the top. Stairs had to be
implemented after erosion was a serious concern from hikers just walking to
the top. Once at the top of the island you can see a beautiful sunset in a
panoramic 360 degree view. On Bartolome is Pinnacle Rock which has become
an emblem for the Galapagos Islands. You can also see lots of neighboring
islands including Santiago and Daphne Major and Daphne Minor. We swam
around Pinnacle Rock earlier in the day searching (successfully) for
Galapagos Penguins, which is the world's second smallest Penguin.
